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In the modern digital world, businesses have realized the value and potential of getting a high rank on search engine. But as the competition has increased over the Internet in last few years, it has become difficult for a local business to get good place on search engine. This, in turn, has put pressure on local SEO where service providers are receiving tough competition in the online marketing. In addition, tough measures by Google have also made it more difficult for local businesses to appear on first page of search results.

In the last few years, local search ranking factors have changed a lot, which further have made the process to rank local search keywords more difficult. Every change in local search ranking factors is needed to be observed carefully to stay ahead in the local business competition and make the most of SEO strategies.

Here are survey results of Local Search Ranking Factors for 2017:

Google My Business Listing
Also called GMB listing, it is primary listing of a local business on Google which comes with the feature of editing. Using Google My Business dashboard, the listing at Google can be edited to make necessary changes. Publicly, it is accessible in three areas, which are:

Google My Business landing Page
It is a page with which Google My Business listing is linked. It could be location page or a homepage.

Local Pack
It is regular local 3-pack that can be noticed during the most local search terms over the search engine.

Local ABC Pack
It’s a local three-pack (A, B and C) which appears on the left of every result during a local search on search engine. Here, review or rating is not considered.

Local Snack Pack
This type of local three-pack appears in case of terms such as hospitality, entertainment and dining. In the search results, there will a picture, but no website link or any phone number.

Local Sponsored Pack
It’s a type of special pack that is available for plumbers and locksmiths in San Diego. This pack is an addition to regular pack on the search results.

Local Finder
This type of list on local search results appear when someone clicks on ‘more places’ link appearing on bottom of local pack.

This year’s survey was divided on five sections

General Ranking Factors: During this phase, people taking part in the survey were asked about clusters affecting rankings across result types at Google. The clusters included: Citation signals, Review signals, My Business signals, On-page signals, Behavioral/mobile signals, Link signals, Social signals and Personalization.

Specific Ranking Factors: In this survey section, experts were asked about top individual ranking factors affecting pack ranking. They were also asked to tell about factors affecting localized organic rankings.

Foundational versus Competitive Factors: This section of the survey included experts telling important foundational ranking factors and competitive difference making factors.

Impact of the Possum Update: Here, experts told about factors given attention since the Possum update and factors that were mostly ignored in the same time.

Negative Ranking Factors: As the name suggests, this section of the survey dealt with negative factors that were found to be with damaging effects.

An e-commerce platform is required to be updated with time to ensure usage of advanced technical tools and easy availability to online users. The decision to update the platform can result in many good changes for the brand. But the process to update it should be done in an accurate way, unless the website may lose its charm on search engines and pose serious problems to the platform.

If you are planning e-commerce website migration, here are things to remember to ensure a problem-free process:

Prepare List Of Every Important URL On The Platform
Before starting the migration process, it is necessary to get URL of references you may need. In addition, if there are any broken links or existing redirects, add them into the list. If there’s a plan to change URL structure of the platform, ensure not to introduce redirect chains. It may affect the speed of servers and cause search results-related problems. To make the list, one can make use of Screaming Frog.

Decide The Changes
The process of migration may bring lots of structural changes to the platform. It is necessary to stay aware of these changes before finalizing the updates. Here, one should make sandbox to check database on new updated site before making the changes permanent on the domain. This process will help know outcomes of changes. During test implementation, one should ensure that it is set as noindex. It should be removed after the completion of update process. In this step, changes should be included in things like overall site, menu navigation, hierarchy and breadcrumb navigation.

Determine URLs Applied On Updated Site
It is necessary to know how to make page URLs and impacts of migration. Before the process starts, one should ensure that they are aware of URL naming conventions.

Construct Redirect Map: Legacy Site To Migrated Site
Here, one should use their knowledge on URL naming convention and set new guidelines and rules for .htaccess. By doing this, URLs can be redirected to the updated platform.

Attention To Manually Created Links
There will be two types of links on the website: dynamically created and manually created. Links that are static won’t get updated when the platform is updated. If the redirect map part is handled wisely, there will be no reason to worry. In this case, manually created links can be redirected to the new platform.

Attention To Authoritative Pages
Here, one should spend some time to make a list of most authoritative pages. Ahrefs and Open Site Explorer can be used to make the list in an effective manner. Apart from that, one can also use Google Analytics to recognize pages with even one visit in last few months. In this process, it is necessary to ensure that pages with online traffic are preserved carefully. The pages with most number of visitors should be given prominent status.

Keep Tracking Ranking Data
It is necessary to keep a close eye on the website rankings. Various tools, such as SEMrush, can be used to get ranking data in an effective manner. In addition, top keywords and keyword data should also be given the attention. Plus, changes in the keywords before and after the update should also be tracked.

Identify Site Page Prone To Be Missed
The update process should not lead to page missing incidents. If it happens, it could be due to neglecting static pages as the process only handles dynamically generated URLs, or because of inconsistent URL naming conventions. The third reason for the page miss can be problems in internal navigation of pages. All these issues should be considered before starting the migration process.

To avoid any such circumstance, number of URLs should be considered during test implementation.

Monitoring After Migration
Even when the platform is updated, crawl it to ensure everything has been done in an effective way. One should make sure that there’s no issue during the transfer and update process.

SEO, or Search engine optimization, is a modern way to promote a brand’s website and its services online to global customers. SEO strategy can be divided into two categories: On-page SEO and off-page SEO.

What’s off-page SEO? How It Different From On-page SEO?
Off-page SEO is a strategy where content and website links of company are used in a manner that services could be promoted and the website gets more and more online traffic. In the on-page SEO, content on the website is used in a way that improvement could be made in search engine rankings. On the other side, other online sources like links are used in off-page SEO to get traffic on the website. The off-page SEO strategies result in increase in positive brand mentions, search engine rankings and traffic on the website.

Why Off-page SEO Is Important?

Although the on-page SEO brings direct traffic to the website and improves search engine rakings, off-page SEO has a vital role in search engine optimization which makes it a necessary part of the strategy. The major objective of off-page SEO is to receive positive review for a brand’s website and increase positive interaction for the brand.

But there are various off-page SEO strategies that should be used the right way to make the most of SEO. These strategies fall under three major SEO parts: Brand, Audience and Content.

1. Brand: It is essential to make and represent a product in an interesting way. The off-page SEO strategies that fall under brand sector are:

I. High-quality Product, Services

The SEO part of a website or brand becomes easy when it has an impressive appearance or it show its high-quality from the very beginning. When people, online of offline, come to know about such a product, they talk about it. Concerns of customers should be taken care of in case of existing products, and benefits of new products should be provided to potential audience online.

II. Customer Service

There is no need to write about the consequences of poor customer services and how it can damage a brand, as everyone knows about them. Customer service should be available to every customer, and there should be spokespeople stay in contact with online as well as offline customers to handle their product-related queries.

III. Close Eye On Intent Of Online Users

To grab attention of an online user, it is necessary to make them aware of a product and its benefits over its counterparts. In addition, it is also important to understand the requirement of customers from a product. This could be done by staying in contact with online users, talking to them and taking part in online discussion threads.

2. Audience: The easiest trick to understand the customers’ requirements is interacting with them. To make people interested in a brand, the off-SEO strategy must have:

IV. Responsive Presence Over Social Media

In addition to search engines, online users visit social media to learn more about their requirements and solutions for them. So, it is necessary to make social media a part of off-SEO strategy. To make the most of social media, there’s a need to stay active on different social media platforms and interact with online visitors. In addition, if someone has a query related to a brand or its services, it should be resolved as soon as possible.

V. Stay In Touch With Social Media Users

Various social media platforms help in getting traffic for a website. This traffic can further lead to clients for a company. Social media can help a company in getting clients for a long time and build long-term relationship with them. To make the most of off-page SEO, it is essential to stay in touch with clients and contact them whenever they require the services.

The Internet has lots of online forums and blogs where several users across the globe participate and discuss various topics. By participating in such forms and blogging websites, a company can broaden their customer base. But the comments should be made on relevant topics and only the potential audience should be targeted.

VII. Say No To Guest Blogging

The strategy may surprise many, but guest blogging for links is a time-consuming process. This trick could be used when it is about impressing top publishers or influencers online. Instead of working on special guest posts for links, comments on famous blogs should be left. But it is necessary to ensure that the links are matching the publisher.

3. Content

Content is king in all kind of promotional strategies. When people are asked to think of content, they visualize text, images and videos. But in reality, it gives overall experience of a brand. Here’s what could be done with content in case of off-page SEO:

VIII. Work On Different Content Types

Don’t hesitate to do experiments with content. In addition to text, videos and images serve many benefits to promote a brand. In this case, videos should be posted on sites like YouTube, and events should be shared through Facebook Live. Other platforms like Imgur, Flickr and Snapchat can be used to post images and videos related to the brand.

In the modern world, the Internet has becomes a vital part of everyone’s life. Many today do shopping online and get what they want at their doorsteps. They look for online shops, restaurants and service providers of various other fields in the neighborhood. When it is about finding detailed information on a dealer online and near them, most of the online users depend on search engines. According to tech giant Google, people search online about the service provider’s working hours, phone number and clients’ reviews.

According to a Google research, online users trust those dealers in the neighborhood who has complete information online and detailed information about their services. This has made many service providers to get their business listed on online directories and Google My Business (GMB). It not just connects them with potential customers, but also allows them to appear quickly on local search results on search engines. Due to the rising need of GMB to lure local customers, SEO service providers have started considering GMB listing a priority of their online marketing strategies. But SEO has lots of questions for GMB, which are needed to be answered.

Question 1: Who is Google Top Contributor and how they are related to Google?Answer: A Google Top Contributor can be defined as an experienced professional in digital marketing who has detailed knowledge about Google products’ ins and outs. The professional takes part in Google Product Forums and respond to questions posted over there. Those who want to be Google Top Contributor have to spend time on forums and take part in forum conversation. Google keeps a close eye on people making contribution on forums.

In the beginning, a Google Top Contributor has to spend time in searching questions they can answer. With the time and active participation makes an individual ‘Rising Star’. An expert on these forums is invited for Google meetings.

Question 2: Is it necessary to create a Gmail account for new GMB account? Answer: It is a good method to apply if the customer wants to have GMB page and makes the service provider its manager. But if the customer isn’t interested in claiming GMB listing, there are three things to consider:

It is necessary to consult the client regarding the GMB listing and ask for permission to claim it for them.

No need to make a Gmail account. Instead, the service provider can use domain email address of the client as primary address.

The service provider should not use their phone number while creating GMB account for their client. Here, only the client’s information should be shared. This makes easy for the client to get control of their listing when they move to another service provider.

Question 3: I have a restaurant as a client and they’ve recently updated their menu. We noticed that there’s an outdated menu on their Google My Business Page. How did it get there and how can I fix this?Answer: It could be due to scraped menu information from singleplatform.com, an online platform that allows restaurants to display their menu on various search engines. The menu could be removed from Google My Business listing by contacting Single Platform and asking it to remove it. After that, owner of GMB should ask Google My Business support to remove the outdated menu.

Question 4: A former employee verified my client’s Google My Business listing and we don’t know what email address they used. What should I do?Answer: Many service providers experience this problem, but it has a very simple solution. As GMB listing has a verified owner, the authorized owner can get the control back. Here’s what to do:

Use Google account for sign in. Here account that may have been used for listing could be written.

Look for business name and address. If it’s there, select the listing. After that, the right option should be chosen. The options could be: Different email address and request access from the current listing owner.

Question 5: There are fake reviews about my business on my Google My Business listing. Can I get them removed?Answer: Google allows customers to share their experience with a business in the form of reviews. When customers aren’t happy with the services they have been given, they post negative review about a company. Some of those reviews many be fake, but they are difficult to remove.

To help businesses, Google gives ‘mark the flag’ option that a business can use to tell Google that the reviewer has violated the review policy of search engine. However, this will not remove the negative review.

Question 6: What is the right way to contact Google My Business Support?Answer: There are numerous ways to reach GMB support, but the best is via phone support (1-844-491-9665) or Google My Business on Twitter.

Question 7: Where newbie can get information about Google My Business?Answer: Google’s GMB Guide is the perfect place to start with. Here, one can learn about optimizing Google My Business Listing. Apart from that, a beginner can also Search Engine Land’s Local category for more information.

Does ‘Alexa Ranking’ really matter while showing potential of a website? If you’re aware of its importance, you will definitely say ‘yes’. An individual who has knowledge about the Alexa Rank tool knows how it helps in showing popularity of your website relative to others.

For a brand’s popularity on the Internet, it is essential to have a solid Alexa Ranking. It is good to have lower Alexa Rank for your business. It not just calculates your business current health, but also tells your potential clients about the state of your business. This is the reason many businesses around the world are focused on improving their Alexa Rank.

Some people have a hunch that improving Alexa Ranking is a long-way process which takes a long time to get satisfactory results, but the truth is that if you are aware of right strategies and tricks, you will be able to see impeccable results in just 30 days.

Here’re some things that you should know to improve your website’s Alexa ranking quickly:

Invest in Alexa’s Certified Site Metrics

As it is about the popularity of your business, do not hesitate to make small investment to get Alexa Certified Code. It comes with a number of benefits, such as accurate Alexa Rank, information on website’s performance and traffic on it.

Create error-free, genuine and informative content

Content is going to make a big difference when it is about engaging potential clients, so it is necessary to create useful and easy-to-read content. It will not just connect users with the company, but also helps in improving Alexa ranking.

Ensure you’re getting quality inbound links

When Google takes into account components related to its ranking algorithm, Domain trust/authority gets the biggest share. To achieve this, you must ensure that the backlinks your website is getting are of high quality. It means they should be belonging to trustworthy websites.

Although SEO needs your special attention and time, it produces great results. It makes your website better and improves its Alexa Ranking. To ensure that it is working in your favor, you must use the latest and the best SEO practices.

Googlelonomics —the word looks naïve, isn’t it, but the reason that I am using this word is because Google is smart, so you can’t fool it by playing smart. You have myths, its 22nd century my friend—technology is riding on a pillion and so does Google, so you need to apply that critical scientific temper that is so far hiding at some corner of your SEO strategy. You must know that SEO is about continuous rigorous effort. You cannot just sow the seeds and enjoy the fruits; you need to water it for getting those fruits forever. SEO sails in the same boat. So, you need to keep away from some myths that you have so far cultivated and that has been the reason for your ignominious performance, you’re bad my benign folk! So, here are some myths that need to be busted, get over them before they get over you. You know why your rankings have plummeted, here is the reason why?

All these while you were like Oh! My God my title is unique, so I will stand distinct in the race. Keep this myth at bay, it won’t help you long. There are many platforms that don’t consider your meta-descriptions. Though it is not like they don’t help at all, but you can’t solely bank on them for staying at the top.

Shed the thinking that making your website promulgate on the social platform will help you enjoy the “numero uno” slot longer. Rather, think differently, think how Googlelonomics wants. So, you need the right mix to attract those Google bots so that they dance on your tune. Merely sticking to Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn is not enough, carve a different way around for your business promotion.

Buying ads help me improve my ranking. Technically, I would say you are a moron to have believed this all this while. Rather effective and informative content will certainly help you get the maximum organic ranking.

Try to be precise while writing the content; it is the key to stay at the top. Don’t beat around in the bush. So, rather than imposing, try captivating. Your content should not be what you want to impose, rather, what the viewers or searchers are looking for. If you write as per the users need, it’s a given that algorithms will filter your content and reward you with organic rankings.

SEO is not the only ladder to climb to the top; you have to rely on other tools as well for reaching to the top spot and staying there.

The three hour developer conference by Google on Wednesday showcased the latest that we can expect from Google over the next year. While there were many expected announcements, most notably the Google wear and Android TV, some were surprises for all.

Android L

The next version of the Android OS, is not going to be based on a dessert name. Android L, which will roll out to users this fall, has a new design language, going by the name Material Design. Its cross compatibility across phones, tablets, smart watches, Chrome OS, and the web is being touted as its biggest feature.

On the performance side, it is promising to bring ‘PC like gaming’ experience to mobile phones and tablets, optimisingoptimizing battery life apart from handling notifications from the lock screen itself.

Android One

A special initiative aimed at bringing low cost devices to developing countries like India.

Android Wear

The platform designed by Google for its wearables will integrate with Android L, apart from others like Android TV. For instance, an app downloaded for the phone will automatically download for the wearable, with automatic updates. Notifications will be concise, and will be taken from the phone or the smartwatch. For example a text message on the phone, will see your watch vibrate with a preview of the message.

Other features of Android Wear include monitoring your fitness, like your heart rate or daily steps, if the specific watch has those. Also, a feature called ‘glaceable’ wherein interaction with the device can be achieved by just lifting the wrist is present for notifications in Android Wear.

Android Auto

Google launched the Open Automotive Alliance earlier this year, and already has over 40 partners.

This system which connects the phone with the car dashboard, will allow you to get directions, play music, and communicate via phone/text messages by simply voice commands.
The Android Auto SDK is expected to be unveiled soon.

Android TV

The Android TV, promises to combine Android apps, google play services and TV. Google emphasised on easy searching, including voice enabled searches which included even via wearables like the smartwatch. Apart from improvements to Chromecast, Google announced Google Cast for Android TV which will allow for streaming of content on TV from tablets or smartphones.

Chromebooks

Google seemed to be looking at cross-compatibility of ChromeOS and Android, with all native Android apps coming to ChromeOS. Initially Android notifications (like a call, text message etc. on your Android phone) will be visible on the Chrome Desktop. Eventually apps will make their way.

However, the effort is touted to be still in the early days, and it may be some time before it is brought into practice.

Google Fit

Google unveiled the Google Fit, an entire platform specifically targeted at tracking health and fitness information. The Google Fit SDK is expected to be made available to developers soon. It will collect data from the various sensors attached to either wearables or phones and provide relevant recommendations. Many organizations, including fitness oriented like Nike, RunKeeper, Adidas, Noom are already partnering with Google in this effort.

SEO To Become A Determining Force In Internet Marketing

Internet is poised to prepare itself into a new battle ground with SEO trending even larger than ever. With the spurt in internet marketing, the marketing roulette is all set to witness a new swing in the coming four to five years. As per the study conducted by a group of marketers,” in the coming five years, SEO’s contribution to internet marketing will be astonishing. It would comprise of 52% of money spent alone for marketing. Critical! Isn’t it? Seeing the sprouting numbers of netizens that are increasing day by day, SEO is believed to make all other marketing strategies obsolete in the coming decade”. The findings of this flagship survey unveils some completely mindboggling facts that says that one in every $10 that is spent on internet marketing will go to SEO.

So, what could be the possible scenario in near future is SEO would be capable of generating a colossal funding that would not just revolutionalise the way that marketing is taking place rather it will turn out to be a money making proposition for the future business aspirants. As per the findings, it is anticipated that SEO will turn out to be the greatest investment that internet marketing can come across in the coming few years. Many organization are on the verge of upping –the-ante by wielding the influence of SEO, taking it as a mainstream marketing campaign.

Corey Elliot, research director of the pioneering survey was quoted while saying that,” Local search has become one force contributing to the 657% increase in application development, 446% growth of online video production, and 610% growth in mobile media management.” The influence of online marketing is rife and what fortunes it can wield in near future will be something to watch out for.

The influence of SEO is not hidden from the common eye, it is has become a developmental model for growth of many businesses. Facing the ubiquitous competition prevailing in “laissez faire “, it has turned out to be a primary marketing tool to portray the one up-man-ship in the internet marketing arena. With 91% of the users resorting to online search for purchasing a product, it would not be a mistake to call SEO marketing the mother of all battles on the internet.

SEO has yet again proved its raison d’être by excelling in its giant leap to impart maximum satisfaction to the clients. As per the latest revelation by a UK based survey consultancy, SEO’s success has been astonishingly overwhelming in getting their clients on the “numero uno” position in maximum search engine result page.

Witnessing an exponential rise on account of new technology, the term “SEO” has gained currency in the internet marketing campaign. The most bizarre fact that SEO has done is that it has almost brought about a revolution in the field on online marketing. Particularly, the dominance is felt with a higher intensity in the local arena, where almost 97% of the internet users are resorting to local searches for purchasing online. A colossal number to start off!

In order to make SEO a highly professional venture various companies are on the brink of opening SEO training program that encapsulates within itself not just SEO but also how to make future blueprint for positive results.
The CEO of SEO Consultancy Ltd Dr M Mansoor Siddique reports, “SEO is widely unregulated, and it is surprising the lack of technical knowledge that most SEO companies have, it is therefore not surprising why so many of these companies are not able to prove their success.”

The initiative has been primarily devoted to improve the SEO sense among those aspiring to take SEO as their professional identity.

An SEO firm in Europe has launched one of its kinds, a pioneering initiative that envisages catalyzing the conversion rate by using heat maps and eye tracking algorithm that ensures optimum conversion rate whenever a visitor is on any landing page of the company’s website.

In what could be believe as a new “Eureka moment” in the field of internet marketing, it will be something very pleasing to watch out for what this new SEO tactics does to the internet marketing campaign across the globe.

After attending several presentations on SEO and online marketing, meeting different people in the industry, I have come across one simple thing that everyone has a different perception and thoughts but they always land up on the same objective. So who will decide whose perception is the right one?

Well I do not have an answer to that neither anybody else have. If you will ask the definition of SEO from three different people then you should not get amused if each one of them speaks different about SEO. Let’s get straight to the point now and I should throw some light on two phenomenons existing in SEO industry:

Low SEO Maintenance

I will not disagree on the fact that SEO requires more and more money to maintain over time. However I will neither move away from the truth that low SEO maintenance exists in a fruitful manner, if not for many years, then atleast for 6 months to one year. See an individual will be ready to invest more money to maintain the website if he is getting more money from it. Why a person will invest more if he is not receiving ample results from his efforts.

Certainly you want to invest more money to target and maintain newer potential keywords and to generate newer searches which people can start adopting while searching for products or services similar to the ones provided by you. The simple thing to understand is that each individual has different SEO objectives, targets and goals. A person who has a blog on a particular niche for which he has passion to write upon does not need to invest money in PPC or SEO for doing tasks like title tags, sitemap creation, creating links, etc. Instead by posting regular fresh content he will surely be able to show up in the search rankings without thinking of any targeted keywords and employing any SEO strategy.

So people…I would rather say so-called smart people who think that by creating links and doing some black hat they would cheat and enjoy higher rankings surely come to their ultimate fate when they dip badly and get penalized.

The bottom line is that low SEO maintenance exists no matter whether an individual is running a small blog or a corporate running a big e-commerce store.

Long-Term SEO

How will you define long-term SEO…? Is this something in which an individual has to spend continuous money month after month to sustain the existing rankings and to target newer keywords for more dominant search results or is it something which supports the phenomenon – ‘Set it and Forget it’..?

I mentioned this question because I witnessed the same question being asked in one of the presentations which I attended few months back, so thought of sharing that insight with you. I think long-term SEO is for individuals who have certain goal or ambition in their mind. However remember that your goal should not be to have top rankings for your keywords as it will be of no use if your keywords are ranking higher and your traffic is still lesser than a mere blogger who is not spending anything and still getting his article higher on search engines than your website. I will call that sheer wastage of money and awful strategy. Always keep one target in your mind and that is to have increased traffic on your website. The more traffic you will have, the more queries or leads you will gonna generate from your website.

So for me long-term SEO will suit both categories of people. The ones who want to set a particular link strategy having defined goals and targets associated. And the ones who do not have any defined goals, no link strategy, no website audits, no keyword research. So it will not untrue to say that no one size fits all…it’s just the objectives, goals and vision which differ. So stop accusing others of their strategies, stop copying others’ methods…Get set with your own purpose and goal and go ahead to achieve it with dedication and sincerity…!!!